out fifty yards in length, by ten or twelve wide,
shallowing gradually to the edge, and not exceeding four or five feet at
the deepest part. As the party approached the bund, from twenty to
thirty reptiles, which had been basking in the sun, rose and fled to the
water. A net, specially weighted so as to sink its lower edge to the
bottom, was then stretched from bank to bank and swept to the further
end of the pond, followed by a line of men with poles to drive the
crocodiles forward: so complete was the arrangement, that no individual
could have evaded the net, yet, to the astonishment of the Governor's
party, not one was to be found when it was drawn on shore, and no means
of escape for them was apparent or possible except by their descending
into the mud at the bottom of the pond.

The lagoon of Batticaloa, and indeed all the still waters of this
district, are remarkable for the numbers and prodigious size of the
crocodiles which infest them. Their teeth are sometimes so large that
the natives mount them with silver lids and use them for boxes to carry
the powdered chunam, which they chew with the betel leaf. During one of
my visits to the lake a crocodile was caught within a few yards of the
government agent's residence, a hook having been laid the night before,
baited with the entrails of a goat; and made fast, in the native
fashion, by a bunch of fine cords, which the creature cannot gnaw
asunder as it would a solid rope, since they sink into the spaces
between its teeth. The one taken was small, being only about ten or
eleven feet in length, whereas they are frequently killed from fifteen
to nineteen feet long. As long as it was in the water, it made strong
resistance to being hauled on shore, carrying the canoe out into the
deep channel, and occasionally raising its head above the surface, and
clashing its jaws together menacingly. This action has a horrid sound,
as the crocodile has no fleshy lips; and it brings its teeth and the
bones of the mouth together with a loud crash, like the clank of two
pieces of hard wood. After playing it a little, the boatmen drew it to
land, and when once fairly on the shore all courage and energy seemed
utterly to desert it. It tried once or twice to regain the water, but at
last lay motionless and perfectly helpless on the sand. It was no easy
matter to kill it; a rifle ball sent diagonally through its breast had
little or no effect, and even when the shot had been repeated more